Good evening. I guess I don't.
Thank you. Let's let's open up at this evening
and start with him. 158 in the hardback Himmel 158. With all thy quickening powers,
Kindle a flame of sacred love In these cold hearts of ours. Look how we grovel here below
Fond of these earthly toys Our souls, how heavily they go To
reach eternal joys In vain we tune our formal songs In vain
we strive to rise Hosannas languish on our tongues And our devotion
dies Dear Lord, and shall we ever live at this poor dying
reign? Our love so faint, so cold to
be, and thine to us so great. Come, Holy Spirit, heavenly dove,
With all thy quickening pows, Come shed abroad a Savior's love. Let's open our Bibles to Colossians
chapter 1. Colossians chapter 1. I've been reading and making
notes for a week or two, and Lord willing, we'll start going
through Colossians. Since we finished Acts, we'll
begin with Colossians chapter 1. this coming Sunday. We'll continue in Judges and
start preaching. There's just so many verses in
Colossians 1 that deserve a whole message by themselves, and so
I'm looking forward to that study. Thank you for y'all's prayers.
We had a good meeting in Lexington and haven't had a chance been
kind of a whirlwind trip. I haven't had a chance to listen
to the messages from Sunday yet, but I'm sure they were a blessing. I've heard good things from Michael
and Hugo. All right, you have your Bibles open
to Colossians chapter one. We'll begin reading at verse
12. Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be
partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. who hath
delivered us from the power of darkness and hath translated
us into the kingdom of his dear Son, in whom we have redemption
through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins, who is the image of
the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature. For by him
were all things created that are in heaven, that are in earth,
visible and invisible. whether they be thrones or dominions
or principalities or powers, all things were created by him
and all things were created for him. And he is before all things,
and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body,
the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead,
that in all things he might have the preeminence. For it pleased
the Father that in him should all fullness dwell. And having
made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile
all things unto himself, by him, I say, whether they be things
in the earth or things in heaven. And you that were sometime alienated
and enemies in your mind by wicked works, Notice, though we were
at enmity with God and we were enemies in our mind and like
other men, we were of this world, we were never his enemies. He's
loved us with an everlasting love. And you that were sometimes alienated
and the enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath
he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present
you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight. Jim was just telling me that
Anthony LaCassia was admitted in the hospital this afternoon.
I don't know anything else, but he's in Altamont Hospital with
some problem with his esophagus. I wanna pray for Anthony. All
right, let's pray together. Our Heavenly Father, we're reminded as we sang that
hymn, that though we be evil, we know how to give good gifts
to our children. And how much more, how much more
our Heavenly Father will give the Holy Spirit to them that
ask Him. Lord, how dependent we are upon your spirit. Lord, if we are left to our own
wisdom and our own understanding, we'll not see Christ, we'll not
be able to rejoice in him, we'll not be able to believe on him.
Lord, we pray that you'd be pleased this hour to send your spirit
in power, that you would anoint your word, that you would open
our hearts, that you would reveal Christ to us again, that we might
find our rest and our comfort and all our salvation, our hope,
our righteousness in thy dear son. Thank you for the forgiveness
of sin. Thank you for his shed blood.
Lord, we pray for Anthony and we ask Lord that you would comfort
his heart in this time of trial and we pray that you would be
with those that minister to him and help them, Lord, to help
him. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Let's stand and sing 125 again
in the hardback hymnal. 125, Jesus paid it all. I hear the Savior say, Thy strength
indeed is small. Child of weakness, watch and
pray, Find in me thine all in all. Jesus paid it all, All to
Him I owe. Sin hath left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow. Lord, now indeed I find Thy power
and Thine alone Can change the leper's spots And melt the heart
of stone. Jesus paid it all, all to Him
I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow. For nothing good have I Whereby
thy grace to claim I'll wash my garments white In the blood
of Calvary's Lamb Jesus paid it all All to Him I owe Sin had
left a crimson stain He washed it white as snow And when before
the throne I stand in incomplete Jesus died my soul to save My
lips shall still repeat Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain,
he washed it white as snow. That was a good hymn for us to
sing before looking at this text in John chapter six. If you'd
like to open your Bibles with me. I've titled this message,
the sufficiency of Christ, the absolute, total, complete sufficiency
of the Lord Jesus Christ. We dare not add anything to him
and we can't take anything away from him and we find in him our
all. and he is in awe. That's what
the feeding of the 5,000 miracle is about. We've been looking
on Wednesday nights for a couple of months now at the different
miracles, the seven miracles that John records in his gospel
account, and how John, under the inspiration
of the Holy Spirit, closes His gospel by saying many other signs
did Jesus, which are not recorded in this book, but these have
been recorded in order that you might believe that Jesus is the
Christ and that by believing you might have life in his name. So the Lord has given us these
miracles in order to bring us to a dependence upon Christ. That's what believing on him
is. it's coming to see that we're not able. Lord, there's a lad
here with five fishes and two loaves, but what is that among
so many? What did Philip say? He said, 200 penny worth would not
be sufficient to feed these 5,000 men. And this miracle, declares to us our inability
and his ability. With man, it is impossible. It
is impossible. But with God, all things are
possible. Ah, it's a good place to be,
isn't it? The way up is always down. And these two things are
the two sides to the same coin. We cannot believe in the sufficiency
of the Lord Jesus Christ until the Lord brings us to the place
to where we see that we have no ability ourselves. We have no ability. The Lord
said to the apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians, my grace is sufficient for thee. And Matthew, when he writes his
gospel, the spirit of God inspires him in writing primarily to a
Jewish audience to focus his attention on the kingdom of God
and that the Lord Jesus Christ comes as the son of David to
establish his eternal kingdom. When Mark writes his gospel,
it's more of an emphasis toward the Greek congregation and focuses
his attention on the Lord Jesus Christ being the promised Messiah,
the one who has come to bring the Gentiles into the fold. When Luke writes his gospel,
he focuses his attention under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit
on the humanity. And isn't it appropriate that
a physician would do that? That a physician would focus
his attention on the humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ as the
son of man. the God-man. And John, when he
writes, reveals the Lord Jesus Christ as the eternal, living
Logos, the Word, the Word of God. In the beginning was the
Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the
word was made flesh and he dwelt among us. And he's the very,
he's the fullness of the Godhead bodily. He's the full expression
of God. He is the living word of God. And these miracles are given
to us that we might believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as the
word of God. You remember the first miracle of in John chapter
two, where the Lord changed the water into wine and, and we,
we called it the arch miracle because it really revealed what
the Lord Jesus Christ came to do in fulfilling all the requirements
of the law and bringing in the new covenant. And, uh, And the
timing of that was according to God's perfect time. The second
miracle was that of the nobleman who wanted the Lord to heal his
son and the Lord sent him home and told him that,
you know, that his son was going to be okay. And when he got home,
he found out that his son was healed at the very hour the day
before that the Lord Jesus said. It's to show us the authority
that the Lord Jesus Christ has as the Word of God. I'm not worthy
that thou shall come into my house, but only speak the word.
Lord, you have all authority. Never a man spake like this man.
He is the eternal, effectual, sovereign word of God with full
authority. The third miracle we looked at
was the invalid that was healed at the pool of Bethesda. And
we saw there the sovereignty of the Lord Jesus Christ to have
mercy upon whom he would have mercy. And, uh, and it brings
us to that place of Lord, Lord, my, my salvation is in your hand. I can't do anything to persuade
you or sway you or, or manipulate you, uh, salvations of the Lord. Lord, if I'm going to be saved,
you're going to have to save me without, without any regards
to me whatsoever. You're going to have to choose
me according to your own will and purpose. And now in the feeding of the
5,000, we see the sufficiency of the Lord Jesus Christ for
our all. All our salvation is sufficient. This word sufficient means to
be content. to rest or to have enough or
to be fulfilled. Let's read the verses now, John
chapter six, and we'll begin reading in verse five. And when
Jesus then lifted up his eyes and saw a great company come
unto him, he saith unto Philip, whence shall we buy bread that
these may eat? And this he said to prove him,
for he himself knew what he would do. You know, I feel like most of
the time the Lord proves me, I fail the test. But here's what
the Lord's proving to Philip. Philip, you don't have what it
takes to provide for these people. And so the Lord is putting Philip
in a place. He's proving Philip. and proving
all of his disciples to come to the conclusion that they have
a need that they can't meet. And this isn't just a matter
of giving 5,000 men food. This is a gospel message. We
have a need that we cannot meet. And the Lord proves us oftentimes
by letting us try. You know, like a small child,
you know, a wise parent will let them make an effort to do
something until they finally come to the end of themselves.
And they realize, the parent knows all along they can't do
it. But the child in their determination is going to try. And then the
wise parent steps in and helps them out when they've proven
themselves to be unable. And that's what the Lord's doing.
And that's what he does for you and I. He often proves us. He sends trials our way. He lets us try to find our comfort
and our peace and our satisfaction somewhere else. Oh, he'll let
us do that. What's he doing? He's proving
us. He's bringing us to that place where we say, Lord, I'm
so foolish. I can't do this. I can't provide
for myself. I can't save myself. He knew
all along what he would do, but he asked Philip that question
to prove him. And Philip answered him and said,
200 penny worth of bread is not sufficient for them that every
one of them may take a little. We don't have near that kind
of money. If we had it, where would we go buy it? Lord, this
is just an impossible situation. You're right, Philip. That's
why I asked you that question, to bring you to that conclusion. And one of his disciples, Andrew
Simon Peter's brother, said to him, well, there is a lad here,
and a lad is a young boy. He's got his lunch with him. And barley was the poor man's
bread of the day. All he's got is five little loaves
of barley and two small fish. What is that among so many? Surely
that's not gonna be sufficient. That's not gonna be sufficient. That's where verse, I meant to
emphasize this in verse seven, 200 penny worth of bread is not
sufficient for them. The sufficiency is only of Christ. It's only of Christ. Verse 10, and Jesus said, make
the men sit down. Now that first reference to men
is anthropos, which from which we get our word anthropology,
and it just means mankind. And so he said, sit the people
down. But the second reference to men is a male, an adult male. So the point that I'm making
is that Probably 15, 20,000 people because there were 5,000 men. Make the men sit down. Now there
was much grass in the place. So the men sat down in number
about 5,000. And Jesus took the loaves, and
when he had given thanks, he distributed to the disciples,
and the disciples to them that were set down, set down. And
likewise, the fishes, as much as they would. And when they
were filled, he said unto his disciples, gather up the fragments
that remain, that nothing be lost." Now, this isn't just a
matter of not wasting food. This is all part of his sufficiency. Everything that the Lord Jesus
does is effectual. He didn't waste a drop of his
blood on Calvary's cross. He doesn't waste his time trying
to get people to follow him. He acts with purpose and power
in everything he does. So that's what the waste is about.
I'm not, I'm not wasting my time. I'm not wasting my effort. I'm
not wasting any of that. That's, that's what the world
thinks about God. You know, that he died for people
that aren't saved and won't be saved. That he, how many times
you hear people say, well, you know, God's trying to, God's
trying to get me to do something for so many years. God doesn't
try to do anything. He's not wasting his time. He's
not wasting his efforts. He's God. He said, gather up
the fragments, don't leave a crumb. Nothing's going to be wasted. Therefore, they gathered them
together and filled 12 baskets with the fragments of the five
barley loaves, which remained over and above unto them that
had eaten. Then those men, when they had
seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, this is of a truth, that
prophet that should come into the world. They were convinced, sort of. The Lord then rebukes them because
they were following Christ that they might have their bellies
full. And they ended up, they all left. All they saw in this miracle
was the physical miracle. That's all they saw. And if all
we see in God is that which he can provide for us physically
in this world to give us more comfort and more happiness and
more of whatever it is our flesh desires, if that's all we see
of God, make us a better person, so that we can enjoy life more
and be more profitable and more... No. These things have been written
that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ and that believing
you might have life through his name. These people said, this
is the prophet that should come because they saw what he had
done for their bellies. And the belly in the Bible is
a picture of the flesh. Slow bellies, the scripture calls
those false prophets. And you know how your belly works
with your flesh. And so that's all they were interested
in. Oh, I pray the Lord will show
us so much more than just the multiplication of fishes and
loaves for the sufficient I looked up this word sufficient in the
New Testament and the very first time it's used is in Matthew
chapter 25. You remember where the 10 virgins
were waiting for the bridegroom to come and the bridegroom came
at midnight. It's a picture of the Lord Jesus
Christ coming to gather his bride and five of them had oil in their
lamp and they were waiting and watching for the bridegroom and
five of them didn't. And the five that didn't picture
the tears among the wheat and the ones who don't have the spirit
of God. They're not really watching and
waiting. They don't really believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. They're
involved in religion so that they can have their bellies full.
There's the difference, isn't it? And so, The five that didn't
have oil when the bridegroom came said, give us your oil. And the five that had oil said,
not so. Lest there be not enough for
us. We can't, we can't share the
Holy Spirit with another person. The five that had the oil told
them, they said, go buy oil for yourself. And they ran off to
buy oil. When they came back, the door was shut. We can't give the spirit of God
to someone else. I can't give God's spirit to
you, and you can't give God's spirit to me. God's given us sufficient for
ourselves. And that's all we have. And each
one of us needs a sufficient measure of the Spirit of God
for ourselves. Only by the Lord's grace can
we have a sufficient measure of the Spirit of God and sufficient
salvation. 200 penny worth would not be
sufficient. Lord, this is a need, and there's
where we are. What do we say? What do we say?
We've already quoted this verse earlier, the hymn that you led
us in, Adam, about the spirit of God coming. If you being evil know how to
give good gifts unto your children, how much more your heavenly father
give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him. Lord, we've got
to go to the Lord for his spirit. And when he gives us his spirit,
he convicts us of our sin because of our unbelief and of our lack
of righteousness because the Lord Jesus Christ has gone to
the father and for the justice of God because the prince of
this world has been judged. He convinces us and we believe. that our sin problem is rooted
in unbelief and that our righteousness is completely in Christ and that
the Lord Jesus Christ was successful in destroying the works of the
devil and delivering his people from darkness. We just believe that, don't we?
The second time this word sufficient is found in the New Testament
is when the Roman soldiers said to the Lord Jesus Christ, well,
what about us? What about us? And the Lord told
them, you know, not to falsely accuse anyone, not to abuse men,
and to be content. That's the word, same word, sufficient,
be content with their wages. And how, you know, contentment
with godliness is great gain. The Lord would make us content. with him, just content with him. In John chapter 14, when Philip
asked the Lord, show us the father and it will be sufficient. It
suffices us. All we need to know is we just
see the father. And the Lord Jesus Christ said
to Philip, he said, Philip, you don't, you know, that you you've
seen me, you've seen the father, for I and the father are one.
Be content with the sufficiency of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's
the only one sufficient to feed these 5,000 men. He's the only
one sufficient to feed ourselves, to give us our salvation. And then in 2 Corinthians chapter
12, when Paul was praying three times
for the Lord to remove the thorn from his flesh. And the Lord
said to Paul, he said, my grace is sufficient for thee, sufficient. Not gonna remove the thorn, Paul,
but I'm gonna give you sufficient grace. And where your sin abounds,
grace will much more abound. And my grace will be sufficient
for you. This is what, this is about the
sufficiency of the Lord Jesus Christ and our complete inability
to save ourselves or to even provide for ourselves. Let me
show you the first time this word's used in the Bible, Exodus
chapter 36, Exodus 36. So the Lord has given Moses an
exact blueprint as to how the tabernacle was to be built. Exactly. I mean, the measurements, the
material that it was to be made of, because, and it was so important
because everything From the one door that entered into the tabernacle,
into the holies of holies, to that Ark of the Covenant, everything
in that tabernacle pointed to Christ. And in chapter 36 of
Exodus, and Moses gave commandment, and they caused it to be proclaimed
throughout the camp. I'm sorry, let's back up to verse
five. And they spake unto Moses saying, the people bring much
more than enough for the service of the work, which the Lord commanded
us to make. So Moses instructed the people
to bring gifts that there would be provision to be able to build
this tabernacle. And so now the men that are building
the tabernacle have to go to Moses and tell Moses, tell the
people to quit bringing stuff. Look at verse six. And Moses
gave commandment and they caused it to be proclaimed throughout
the camp saying, let neither man nor woman make any more work
for the offering of the sanctuary. So the people were restrained
from bringing for the stuff they had was sufficient. It was sufficient for all the
work to make it and too much. I think about what the Lord said
in Ephesians chapter three, when he said, and he is exceedingly
abundant, able to give us beyond what we ask or think. He had to tell people to quit
bringing it. We've got too much. We've got
sufficient, the word stuff right here is most often translated
in the Old Testament, work, work. You've all done enough work.
Quit bringing anything. It's all, everything we need
is here. It reminds me of when David provided all the materials
for Solomon later to build the temple. When David died, everything
that Solomon needed to construct that temple was on the temple
site. And David provided it all. What a glorious picture. All the work necessary for our
salvation has been sufficiently provided by the Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing else. Don't bring anything
else. It's all done. Don't bring your
works. Don't bring your will. Don't
bring your wisdom. Don't bring anything. Look to
the Lord Jesus Christ alone. Rest your hope. him. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Turn with me to Isaiah chapter
40. Isaiah chapter 40, verse 15. Here's God speaking to you and
I. Behold, the nations are as a
drop of a bucket and are counted as the small dust of the balance. Behold, he taketh up the aisles
as a very little thing. And Lebanon is not sufficient
to burn, nor the beast thereof sufficient for a burnt offering.
Now he's not, The Lord's not saying that the country of love,
he's saying there's not enough offerings in Lebanon to satisfy
God. God the Father saw the travail
of his son's soul and was satisfied. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
only one that's sufficient. You and I aren't sufficient.
We can't experience sorrow and repentance and faith and Hatred
for sin and belief in God. We can't provide for ourselves. 200 penny worth would not be
sufficient to feed these people, Lord. What are we gonna do? And
these things he said to prove them, to prove them that they
weren't able. You and I aren't able. We're
not able to save ourselves. but he's sufficient. All of Lebanon
and everything that Lebanon would have to offer would not be a
sufficient offering. Look at verse 17, all nations
before him are as nothing and they are counted to him less
than nothing and vanity, emptiness. He has to provide everything
for the tabernacle and for the temple. Everything that God requires,
the Lord Jesus Christ must provide. John chapter 15, verse five,
I am the vine and you are the branches. He that abideth in
me, and I in him beareth much fruit. For without me, you can
do no thing." No thing. That's what this miracle is about.
The Lord is telling you and I about the sufficiency of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And without him, we can do nothing. And with him, all things are
possible. Who then, Lord, can be saved?
With man, it is impossible, but with God, all things are possible.
He's proving us with the impossibility. Sort of like when that man came
to the disciples with the son that was possessed and disciples
couldn't do anything. And he came before the Lord and
said, said, Lord, if thou can't do anything, have compassion
on us. And what the Lord say, if thou
can't believe, all things are possible to them that believe.
And what do we say? Lord, if I'm gonna believe, you're
gonna have to give me faith. You're gonna have to give me
faith. The Lord said it's easier for
a camel to go through the eye of a needle than it is for a
rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. Worldly riches make us
proud and independent, but the Lord has has saved men that are worldly
wealthy. I guess on a standard of the
world, as we know it, we're all wealthy. But the Lord's never saved a
single individual that was rich in their own righteousness. He stripped them of all of their
wealth, just like he did you. just like he did me, stripped
us naked, took away all of our hope, all of our salvation, all
of our righteousness. So that's when it's easier for
a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for rich men
to enter the kingdom of God. Who then, Lord, can be saved?
With man it is impossible, but with God all things are possible.
Aren't you glad that the Lord is pleased to strip you of the
riches of your righteousness. Take those fig leaves off of
you and expose your nakedness and then take the lamb's fleece
and cover your nakedness with the robe of righteousness. Here's
our hope. I love that story in second Kings
chapter six, when the King of Syria is, he keeps going, he
keeps making these battle plans to attack Israel. And Elisha
tells the King of Israel all the King's plans. And the King
of Syria said he thought he had a spy among his leadership. And so he brings all of his,
all of his men. And he said, okay, who's the
spy here? And one of them said, no, There's a prophet down in
Dothan, and he knows the things that you whisper in your bedchamber. And so the king of Syria sends
his army down to capture Elisha, surrounds Dothan with his army,
and Elisha's servant, I can just see him coming out of this little
cabin and looking out and seeing this great army of chariots armed
men and runs back in and says, old master, what should we do?
What are we going to do? He said, oh, don't worry about
it. They that are with us are more than they that are with
them. And the servant must've thought, I don't know what he's
talking about. But Elisha said, Lord, open his
eyes that he might see. All he saw was what was there
physically. until the Lord opened his eyes. All these people saw
was the feeding of their bellies. Our hope is that the Lord would
open our eyes and cause us to see that we've been proved, and
in being proved, we've been exposed for what we are, and we've been
brought to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for all our salvation
and all of our righteousness. Servant went back out and there
were chariots of fire surrounding the Syrian army. Open my eyes,
Lord, that I might see. The sufficiency of Christ. Christ
is all and Christ is in all. He's all in our salvation and
he gets all the glory. In election, God did not look
down through the quarters of time in eternity past and see
who would choose him and consequently choose them. No, he saw his people
in Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ was sufficient
as our surety, as the lamb slain before the foundation of the
world in the covenant of grace before the angels were made. The Lord Jesus Christ stood as
our surety before our heavenly father. And so the Lord Jesus
Christ is the sufficient one in eternity past in that covenant
of grace. In redemption, in redemption,
the Lord Jesus Christ is all. He's everything. The father's
not looking to see what we will do with Christ. He's looking
to the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is finished.
It's finished. We believe that. We believe we
can't add anything to the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's looking only to the sufficiency
of the Lord Jesus. He's looking to the travail of
his soul. And faith on our part is looking
to the same one that the Father's looking to for our sufficiency. We're not looking anywhere else.
We're not trying to add to the finished work of the Lord Jesus
Christ for our redemption. He is the substance of that which
we hope for. He is the evidence of that which
the natural eye cannot see. And we're looking in faith to
Christ, believing on Him for our sufficiency before God. All that God required, Christ
provided. all the shame, all the sorrow,
all the separation, all the righteousness, all the justification, everything
that God demanded, everything the Lord Jesus Christ provided. We dare not look anywhere else. In regeneration, the Lord Jesus
Christ is sufficient. We don't add our will or our
works. It is not of him that willeth
nor of him that worketh. He's sufficient to breathe his
life into us. The new birth is a work of grace. He calls us with a holy calling. He makes us willing in the day
of his power. He puts his spirit in us. He
calls us out of the darkness of our unbelief into his marvelous
light to rest all of our hope in his glorious person and accomplished
work. That's the new birth. A week or two, two or three weeks
ago, we looked at that verse in Acts chapter 28 after Paul
had preached to those Jewish men. And the scripture says,
and some believed and some believed not. And the two groups could
not be in agreement. And that first believed is in
the passive voice, which means that the action was done to them. Whereas the second believed is
in the active voice, which means that they perform the action.
And I got to thinking of an illustration that would, you know, if for
those who have believed, we have been acted upon, we were passive
in our belief. We can't not believe, we just
believe. That's the evidence of our salvation. It's really the only evidence. And those who believe not are
active in their unbelief. They're active in their rebellion
against God. And I thought of this simple
illustration. Two people outside and the clouds open up and it
begins to rain. And one stands still and gets
soaking wet. And the other pops up an umbrella
and then runs for shelter. One was passive. The other was
actively resisting the rain. That's the difference. Scripture refers to the word
of God as the rain that falls from heaven. And when God makes
you to be a believer, you just passively believe and receive
all that God says. And you rest in Christ for your
salvation. You don't pop up the umbrella.
You don't run for shelter. You don't say, yeah, but. You
don't try to escape. You just, you just receive. The work of grace in our heart
makes us look to Christ alone for our salvation. Now in closing,
let me just mention the five and the two. Five, there's 5,000
men, there's five barley loaves. Five in the Bible is a number
for grace, and particularly it's a number of how God reveals his
grace by his word. We have the first five books
of Moses in the Bible. There's In the tabernacle, there
are multiples of five in most of the things that were to be
built in the tabernacle. There were five major holy days
in the Old Covenant, and there were five sacrifices that were to be made. The book of Psalms is broken
up into five sections. And interesting what Paul said
in 1 Corinthians when he said, I would rather speak five words
with understanding than 10,000 words with an unknown tongue.
So this number five is a picture of the bread of life revealed
in Christ. And I mentioned earlier that
barley was the poor man's bread. It still is. Still is. It's for the poor and the needy.
That's who the five barley loaves are for. And reveals God's grace
in God's Word. And you know what the number
two is. And the two shall be made one flesh. Two is a picture
of union. As he is, so are we in this world. Being in Christ, and Christ being
in us. There are two testaments. There are two witnesses, the
Spirit and the Word. And so, these five and two. And you know what the number
12 is? There were 12 fragments that were left over. What's this
a picture of? That the Lord's not going to
lose one of his sheep. There are 12 tribes of Israel.
There were 12 apostles. There's 12 gates, all of one
pearl going into the new Jerusalem. This is the whole church. The
144,000 is a multiple of 12. And so the Lord says, don't leave
a crumb behind. And I think about when the children
of Israel were brought out of Egypt and the scripture says,
not a hoof was left behind. The Lord is not gonna lose one
of his sheep, not a single one. What he did at Calvary's cross
is sufficient. He prove us until we say like
Philip, 200 penny worth is not sufficient,
Lord, I'm not sufficient. There's a lad here with five
loaves and two fishes, but what is that among so many? Lord,
we have no answer to this dilemma. We can't fix this problem. The Lord said, set him down.
Set him down. And he blessed the food and gave
it until they had all they needed. Exceedingly abundantly above
all that we should ask or think. the sufficiency of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He is sufficient. Our heavenly Father, thank you
for your word. Bless it to the hearts of your
people. We ask it for Christ's sake, amen. 244? I'm sorry, come on up Adam. You tell us. Let's sing 224. We'll stand and
sing this in the hardback. I know not why God's wondrous
grace to me he hath made known, Nor why unworthy Christ in love
Redeemed me for His own. But I know whom I have believed
and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I've committed
unto him against that day.